Exactly
It’s a problem when I need to prep something for, let’s say 10AM on Friday, and everyone knows that’s the day and time we have to present something. And let’s say that once she gives me her work, she knows that I have to review it, maybe ask questions or add context or incorporate that into a downstream thing. If she knows this, and still sends it to me at 9PM on Thursday, that’s a problem, because now I have to scramble Friday morning.
I was pretty clear about this and she still would send me things very late in the game. And it wasn’t like she was working at 110% and she just couldn’t make it happen or anything.
Grrr I are frustrate.
Sounds like she needs to have her work done on Wednesday. Or at the latest maybe noon Thursday.
Give her the deadline that you need. Don’t expect her to figure out that what you said is not what you meant.
I even think you could say “schedule a 15 minute meeting for us to review this no later than 2:30 PM Thursday and plan to be available for at least two hours that I’m also working for us to go over possible changes.” Or something like that.
That is much clearer communication on your part and then his/her fault for being late. (Assuming the deadline can reasonably be met, at least.)
This is exactly how my department handles presentations. And the meeting time is the de facto deadline for all the exhibits to be ready. Except it’s usually a half hour meeting, and we expect to make several small changes. So that meeting is usually ~24 hours prior to the presentation.
I had an employee that usually came in between 10-11am, and occasionally as late as noon. He always worked late into the evening, putting in way over 40 hours/ week. The main business leader he worked with was based in CA, and that worked OK since he was pretty much on a CA schedule.
Yeah, I did that, she was just chronically late. She did some good work but struggled with things and would just send things late with an apology. We coached her quite a bit and ultimately laid her off.
Yeah, that must be getting old.
Yeah depending on what is to be reviewed I can see anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours being appropriate, with 30-45 minutes perhaps being most typical.
One of my very first meetings at this gig and two objectively attractive women were presenting a software solution - one of the women was not even finished talking and ting “Great job ladies!!!” ting “Very professional!!” ting “Yes, very well done” ting ting… ting
…and then…
First typed out then said out loud in case the ladies missed it… “Does your smile come with the solution?”
Speaking as a person who tends to run late, this distinction would confuse the hell out of me, fwiw.
This is completely clear, though.
I also observe that I’ve done more “let’s review that together” since the pandemic. It’s partly an excuse to actually spend time “with” the other person, which helped keep me sane at the beginning, when i was totally hiding in my home, but also helped maintain social connections at work. And i think that’s been really effective for stuff like deadlines as a fringe benefit.
![]()
Is this a weird nerdy way of asking a woman to smile more? I don’t even get that. Is it a criticism that she’s not smiling or that she didn’t offer a solution or both or something else altogether?
(I realize you might not know the answer, but you know the context.)
![]()
He was implying that he would buy the product if she came with it (because she was hot).
![]()
I know people use it different ways, but it’s interesting to me because if I say I need someone “by noon” there’s no vagueness there - need it before noon. Not sometime during the noon hour. If I say I need it by Friday, suddenly it’s not so clear.
:exams:
That’s horrendous and merits a long sit-down with HR.
Noon isn’t an hour, it’s a precise moment. Friday lasts 24 hours.
I’m going to split hairs here.
I think 12:00 PM is “by noon” whereas “11:59 AM” is “before noon”.
It’s just that in practice 11:59 vs 12:00 doesn’t make much difference so it doesn’t really matter if it’s interpreted as 12:00 when you meant 11:59. Whereas by Wednesday vs by Thursday is hugely important to you.
“By Thursday” to me means any time on Thursday is acceptable.